What Should I Invest In?

Financial Freedom is About You

I am asked this often, and it’s a question I can’t answer. Why? … Because your goals of financial freedom are very personal, and they depend on what you want to accomplish in life.

And for many of you out there, this may be a new concept. Instead of thinking about your children, spouses, friends, aging parents, and others first, you actually need to focus on what you want.

It’s just like on an airplane when the flight attendants tell you to secure your own air mask prior to helping your children – If you don’t take care of yourself first, it’s very difficult to care for others. With this in mind, a good place to start as a new investor is to ask…

What investments interest you most?

As you increase your financial education and conduct research, you’ll find that there are many investments out there. Most of the major, financial magazines and television shows focus on stocks, bonds and mutual funds, also known as paper assets.

Many of the financial “experts” out there promote these investments as less risky and the “safe” way to go. And those who do not have financial intelligence often just hand their hard-earned money over to these people. Why not? It’s easy just to let someone else handle their finances so they don’t have to think about it!

But know that there are many, “alternative-investments” available to help you reach your goals of financial freedom.

Pay attention to the investment areas that you find most interesting. It’s crucial you choose the asset that best suits your personality, values and lifestyle. After all, being an investor is a lifelong activity so you want to find something that you’ll actually like to study.

And this doesn’t mean that you need to stick with just one type of investment. In fact, you’ll want to diversify your investments across several classes. You’ll frequently hear financial planners say, “Diversify your portfolio,” meaning to spread your money over several investments to reduce risk. They are usually referring to the various types of investments you purchase within your stock portfolio, like large and small cap, high technology, alternative energy, etc. But when you do this, you still have all of your money in the same asset class, paper assets.

To truly be diversified means to diversify, not just within paper assets, but across all asset classes.

There are many types of assets you can invest in, but the four primary assets are business, real estate, paper assets, and commodities. I’ll go into these in more detail in the future, but for now, open your mind to other, investment possibilities. Look at what is out there and stop handing your money over to others to manage just because it’s easy.

If you truly want financial freedom, it’s time to change your mindset about investing and take action!

What are you going to do to learn one new thing about investing today? Let us know below.